1. Field of the Invention
The invention provides a novel class of compounds, pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds and methods of using such compounds to treat or prevent diseases or disorders associated with abnormal or deregulated kinase activity, particularly diseases or disorders that involve abnormal activation of the Abl, BCR-Abl, lck, SAPK2α, PDGF-R, p38, TGFβ, KDR, c-Kit, b-RAF, c-RAF, FLT1 and FLT4 kinases.
2. Background
The protein kinases represent a large family of proteins, which play a central role in the regulation of a wide variety of cellular processes and maintaining control over cellular function. A partial, non-limiting, list of these kinases include: receptor tyrosine kinases such as platelet-derived growth factor receptor kinase (PDGF-R), TGFβ, VEGF-receptor kinase (e.g. KDR, Flt-1 and Flt-4), the receptor kinase for stem cell factor, c-kit; non-receptor tyrosine kinases such Abl and the fusion kinase BCR-Abl; and serine/threonine kinases such as p38, b-RAF and c-RAF. Aberrant kinase activity has been observed in many disease states including benign and malignant proliferative disorders as well as diseases resulting from inappropriate activation of the immune and nervous systems.
The novel compounds of this invention inhibit the activity of one or more protein kinases and are, therefore, expected to be useful in the treatment of kinase-associated diseases.